Looking to become a stronger basketball player? If so, there is no question that you’re putting in a good amount of time both on the court as well as in the gym. It’s critical for basketball players to have a good degree of both muscle strength as well as speed and quickness so they can get past any opponent coming their way.

One area of your gym routine you may be overlooking however is that of plyometric training. Using a plyometric box, you can accomplish a lot of benefits and take your physical conditioning to the next level.

Not sure which exercises are best to perform using the box for your basketball routine? Let’s take a closer look and show you the main ones to consider.

Box Jumps

The first plyo box exercise for basketball players is the basic box jump. This can help to dramatically boost your vertical jump ability and ensure that you are maximizing your ability to make that shot when needed.

To perform box jumps, you’ll simply place the plyobox a few feet in front of you and then from there, bend both knees and jump up onto it. Land with both feet in the center of the box and then step back down.

As you get better with this exercise, you can increase the height of the box, which will make the exercise more challenging.

Single Leg Box Jumps

Next, you have single leg box jumps. These are done just the way the standard box jump is performed only this time you are standing on a single leg rather than both legs. If one leg is weaker than the other, this is an excellent exercise to be doing.

It’s also going to mimic how you would jump if you were doing a jump shot better in most cases, so can provide direct transfer over benefits to your in-court performance.

Off The Box Jumps

Off the box jumps are another interesting plyo box exercise to do if you are a basketball player. These will help with your rebounding ability as well as they will force the muscles to react from a rebound.

What you’ll do here is climb on top of the box, jump off it, landing on the ground as you bend the knees and from there, jump up off the ground once more. This time, you are just jumping as high as you can, not jumping onto the box.

This will likely feel more challenging, so don’t be surprised if you can’t jump quite as high using this technique as you did with the first box jump.

Also ensure that you are wearing well-cushioned footwear for this one as you’ll have quite a high degree of force coming down each time you land off the box from the initial jump.

Lateral Jumps

Finally, it’s also good to work your lateral side to side jumping ability as well. Lateral jumps will do this perfectly. This will be performed just as you would a standard box jump only this time, rather than jumping up facing the box, you are jumping up from the side view.

Stand so that you are facing the wall with the box on your left or right side and then jump up onto it, and back down again. Once you’ve a few reps to one side, switch sides and repeat.

So there you have some of the best plyo box exercises for basketball players to perform. Give one of these a try next time you’re in the gym and you’ll soon be seeing the benefits.